Movie Review: Suicide Squad

Batman v Superman started the franchise this year and it got pretty mixed reviews. Critics didn’t like it but fans say critics were too harsh. I reviewed it and personally, I liked it. Now comes Suicide Squad, the franchise’s first villains-turned-hero film ala Deadpool (well, technically Deadpool’s an antihero).

Like a curse, Suicide Squad met its own BvS critics. Fans reacted and even went on as to petition the shutting down of a popular film-review website. Fans like me weren’t deterred so I went ahead and formed my own opinion about the film and here is my review.

The Good

Characters

Naturally, the all-star cast was probably half the reason why people went to see the film. And for the most part, Suicide Squad got it good. My reaction to Waller’s character is the same reaction to Ben Affleck being Batman. She killed it. Will Smith was also a nice touch for the usually heartless Deadshot.

Diablo, Boomerang, Katana, good characters that never faded behind the stars. My only beef with Diablo was how the film wanted us to feel sorry for the guy, specially near the end, but it was rushed and the feelings never developed. Maybe an extra 15 minutes of storytelling and dialogue could’ve hooked the audience in.

Rick Flag also did a good job portraying the “only good guy in a bad guy team” role. Croc…Croc is Croc. I liked him but boy was he really ugly here. I was imagining something like the Lizard in the first Amazing Spiderman but wow, they literally had a big headed dinosaur head attached to a relatively average-sized human body.

Harley and Enchantress…not so much. Harley started out really great but I think the trailers (lots of them) have shown too much Harley that it didn’t really make me look forward to her anymore. She also became cringey during the last 20 minutes of the film. Enchantress’ fault was she got CGI’d too much and her other character, the human, lost chance of proving herself as someone worth saving not more than halfway through the film.

The Joker…I guess I was expecting a Ledger from this one but I guess I have to give props to Leto for playing the part well enough. Too bad my bias is towards a dead guy. Still, he portrayed it decently and perhaps he needed only more screen time for the audience to appreciate him. As for the Harley-Joker chemistry…I guess it was okay. I’m not a Harley fan so I’m not sure how that played out with the fans of the couple so I can’t judge that objectively.

Nonetheless, the cast was good at what they did so kudos to that! It’s just a shame they had to kill a few guys when they could’ve been great for another film.

Soundtrack

Holy shit. I loved it. It was like a Millenial’s playlist (and I’m a Millenial). Worth buying the OST for sure.

Tie-in/Easter Eggs

Suicide Squad ties itself nicely to BvS and The Justice League film. We see the funeral of Superman as well as the Flash for just four precious seconds. Not sure if Wonder Woman was hinted there and if she was then I missed it.

The Humor

This is a pretty dark film, literally and figuratively. My eyes needed a few minutes to adjust to the film but I digress. We all pretty much assumed DC to be the darker side of comic cinema juxtaposed to Marvel so the jokes and quips here were a pleasant addition to an otherwise troubled storyline. Speaking of storyline…

The Bad

Plot

Alright, let’s get it out. Suicide Squad’s plot was good for about 70%. The remaining 30% became predictable, cheesy, and seemed rushed. I get why bashers are hitting the plot like it was a punching bag but I still think they were too harsh.

Fight Scenes

I admired some of the scenes but the “final fight” was too cringey/lackluster. The first brawls were really good specially with Deadshot stealing the show but damn, the boss fight choreography was pretty tamed. Reminds me of the Wolverine: Origins boss fight with the first onscreen Deadpool (the one with the sewn mouth).

And again, Harley and Enchantress sort of messing it up in this part.

Deleted Scenes

Some of the good scenes in the trailers got lost in the final cut of the film. I guess we can expect an “Ultimate” version when it comes out on Blu-Ray.

SUMMARY

For what it’s worth, Suicide Squad didn’t actually fare that well than Batman v Superman but it had a few good points that surpassed that film, and that’s coming from a Batman fan. The characters and background story were great, soundtrack is for Millenials, and the humor was warm amidst a cold and dark setting.

The one flaw was the last twenty or so minutes of the film. The ending felt like it needed twenty more just to wrap things up properly. In this regard, I understand the bashers’ point of view and I totally understand if you would only watch this film once. Still, it’s not so bad that it deserves all the hate. I think most of the bashing was due to how the film didn’t live up to the hype and the lack of Joker scenes.

I give this film 5/10. Definitely worth watching just so you know the whole DCEU but that’s about it.

Favorite Scene

Every part where Batman was there was great but the last scene, after the first post credits, was worth the whole minute it got. Amanda Waller vs Bruce Wayne. I really can’t wait for Batfleck to make a standalone Batman movie and I really wish Amanda Waller gets to be there too.